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L&G Project

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Sending Our Piggies Out The Door!

FINALLY !! we're done with all the holiday orders!!
Now I can breath!! I feel like I've been holding my breath (and grinding my teeth) for the last month with all the production, managing of orders, packing & shipping, and craft shows we had to do for both L&G and R&L goods.
We've been more than happy with all the positive response of our piggies and servers and would love to thank all the wonderful people who supported us being our first holiday season!
Of course...not everything went as smooth as we wanted. Being our first time doing all this...especially in such hectic Holiday season...we definitely ran into some road bumps and had to learn some hard lessons during the process. I know there's always a learning curve to everything....but man, there were just so many small-seeming little things that we over-looked...(i.e. packing & shipping) that ended up being WAY more complicated and time consuming than we ever imagined.
With that said we're the MOST thankful to all our customers who have been MORE than understanding and patient with us!!

Knowing what I know now, we'll definitely be making some improvements for less errors to take place and ways to be more efficient.
One thing that we hope to stay the same is that we'd like to give the same amount TLC in making our goods, pack & ship all our piggies....
Where each piggy will have their limited edition number card.

...and they'll get wrapped up with their rag & chalk kit, which are individually bagged in a little cloth bag.
Then I wrap them up in these awesome textured kraft paper and make them look like a delicious-looking little piggy packages. :)

Of course, I'd like to add a little thank you note for every package to let you know how ever so thankful we are for your wonderful support.

Although taping up isn't my favorite task...but the fact that we get to use this awesome metal Italian tape dispenser from Kiosk, it makes it totally worth it. This was one the best souvenir we got from our summer trip to NY.

So thank you ALL again for your enthusiasm in our goods!! We couldn't have done all this without you! This has been a whirlwind, but very exciting holiday season....and now I'm gonna hit the hay and sleep for 2 days straight. :)

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Couple More L&G Features!

Our L&G Superior Servers also got featured in December's holiday gift guide in Traditional Home Magazine!
This and Sunset's feature this month was totally amazing for L&G! And because of it, we've literally been working non-stop since Thanksgiving.....which totally feels like centuries ago! There were people who even recognized our goods from the features couple of weekends ago at UCU show!

In addition, L&G's Chalk Piggy Bank got featured in the Seattle City Arts magazine, too! This feature I actually didn't even know about! But thanks to Jenny from {Far4} I was able to get a copy of it before it was too late!
It's been fun seeing where we've been popping up without knowing....it's almost like a scavenger hunt..even MORE exciting! :)

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L&G Piggy on Daily Candy

It's been a pretty crazy season for us...WAY beyond what we had ever expected. But what we really didn't expect was when lovely Jenny from {far4} forward this mention of our Chalk piggy bank on Daily Candy!

Thanks Jenny!!
Now back to me working crazy like a holiday elf!!



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Hallelujah~

It's been a long time coming...but FINALLY....My new 13" Mac Book Pro baby!

To my previous powerbook that's been with me for 7.5 years...

Thank you for being there for me since college. Although you weren't always the most reliable or the fastest, you did always perform all the tasks I needed.
But I really didn't appreciate towards the end where you'd would only pick up the wireless signals whenever you feel like it....or when it got to the point where you just pinwheel like a little B as if  i have all the time in the world. :P
With that said..we did have a good run didn't we....
You'll always hold a special place in my heart....

Now come to mama my sweet Mac Book pro!
I'm stoked that I'll get things done twice as fast and will have as much fun as this lady...for another 7.5 years hopefully!


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UCU Wrap Up


We had so much fun at Seattle UCU last weekend - L&G's first time at the event. Thanks to all that came by to say hello and shop!!

Here are some images of the show in review.

creature paws salt and pepper shakers. A little morbid...but I think a lot of people got a kick out of it. There were a lot of cute sound making whenever people picked it up... :)

Jean's new necklace collection with hand-casted ceramic gems.


Terrariums and terrarium ornaments. We're thrilled that the ornaments & the ornament kits sold out!! Tis the Season!
Daily affirmation mirrors - vintage mirror trays with positive expressions. "Go Get Him Tiger" was the run away favorite!
Superior servers including mixed vintage flatware and ladles not available online (yet!)

It was so great to plan our own little "store" out of (free) wood vegetable crates from the ID and craft paper.
We also really liked being able to include some new and old products for the first time and see people being excited about them! Thank you all for coming!!

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Spending Some Quality Time...with our Piggies

We decided to put a personal touch to our Chalk-It-To-Me Piggies where each piggy is marked with a limited edition number with our 14k gold pen. (I'm kidding, there's no gold in it...so don't go sending the piggy away to trade for money...)
We like the idea to make them limited edition and that after this first 100 of them, we'll udpate the piggy with something else...to keep things exciting for everyone including us!



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New At UCU

(top secret low-res phone pic...sorry for the bad quality)

UCU Sunday exclusive! Jean's new necklaces with hand-casted ceramic gems, available in a wonderful set of finish options. We have six only for today, so come early and be one of the lucky purchasers!

More better quality photos later!

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MORE at UCU!

I'm also SUPER excited to have some terrarium ornaments & kits at UCU this weekend.
We did this for our Brite Terrarium Wonderland Workshop couple weeks ago, and figure this is also a good opportunity to share what we created!
These will be available at our L&G booth with ornaments already made, and also the kits for the DIY peeps out there.The workshop was a collaboration between our friend Nicholas Nyland where he did the lovely illustrations and I designed the kits!

Each kit comes with:
Instruction, ornament ball, ribbon, soil, activated charcoal, various moss types, and a surprise white animal figurine.
Once I started making them, I just couldn't stop!! It was like putting together a miniature world...or more like a miniature WONDERLAND...
The great things about these ornaments is that you can keep them up beyond the holiday season especially for someone like me who never get around to do much holiday stuff! Who really has time to put up lights in & outside of the house, decorate trees, go gift shopping, wrap the gifts, send out Christmas cards, AND bake holiday treats?...oh I guess that's most people, huh?


With the little time I have to do the fun holiday activities that most people gets to do...my little terrarium ornament is a nice little added festivity in our boxes-stacked-and-shipping supplies filled house!

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L&G Sneak Preview for UCU!

L&G is gearing up for this weekend's UCU show. We're totally excited (and delirious from lack of sleep) since this will be our first time showing all our own things. We've been having fun figuring out our displays and and playing shop!

Besides our staple Chalk Piggy Bank & Superior Servers, we're also preparing lots of other exciting things! Some vintage finds, some holiday goods, and one-offs that we'll all be debuting this weekend!
We're taking this opportunity to try new things by making limited runs and see how they go!

Here are some photos of what we'll have

We're playing around with some small slip cast things....
like these ceramic gems...and these salt & pepper creature paws.
Vintage MINI Superior Servers....which is pretty much regular flatware...calling it mini just sounds cuter.

Vintage repurposed Daily Affirmation Mirrors.
And remember this?? I did a guest post on Poppytalk back in 2008. Besides this "Booh-Yah!" doilie, there will be other ones, too!
Vintage wallpaper ornaments & gift tags on wood.
Phew!! Didn't expect the list to be this long!!
I think that's it?.....oh how can I forget....there will be some treats, too at our booth if you come by!!

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L&G at Seattle UCU show this Dec 4/5th



Along with R&L goods, L&G will be at the winter Urban Craft Uprising show in Seattle this weekend!

This will be L&G's first show where we'll get to display all our goods!! And boy are we excited about all the new one-off items we'll have! Like our Daily Affirmation vintage mirrors!!

Date: Dec. 4-5th, Saturday/Sunday
Time: 11am-5pm
Location: Seattle Exhibition hall

Please go to this post and leave a comment for a L&G givaway of this 7" x 7" "You Can Do This" Daily Affirmation mirrors!
Hope to see some of you there!

More sneaky peaks tomorrow!

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Brite Terrarium Wonderland Workshop, 11/20 this Saturday!

Brite & SOIL Artist, Nicholas Nyland is excited to present:

TERRARIUM WONDERLAND WORKSHOP!!

WHEN: This SATURDAY, 11/20th, 12-3pm.

WHAT: You will learn to make lovely terrariums ornaments for the holidays and also make terrariums from found containers!

WHERE: Brite Social Studio- 676 S. Jackson Street,

HOW: Pay $15/person, which will include:Terrarium ornament kit/ tools to use/ instructions/ Vita coffee, Tea, or Dry Soda/ Treats/ and good times!

Bring your own containers and make more terrariums or donate to the group!

 There's a limit of 20 people for this workshop. So please RSVP by

photo by Land-Rich

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Brite's Take Out Take Off




As we did ourselves out of a blog-hole...here's a little glimpse at our very first official event in the new Brite space on Jackson and 7th here in Seattle.


Our goal was to introduce people to our new neighborhood in a fun, engaging way. Quick, what's the most fun, engaging thing you can think of?... If you said "FOOD!" you're 100% correct!

Here's how it worked:



Our lucky guests got to mingle and draw maps of the area from memory. Everyone's knowledge varied a lot...just what we were hoping for.



After mapping, we divided everyone into teams of 3-4 members and assigned them a two block section of the International District. People then each picked two adjectives from a hat.

The mission: go to your area and find a single dish that can be described by the two adjectives.



The stores in the area ranged from restaurants, grocery stores, medicine shops, to bakeries...







After finding their dishes, everyone brought their take-out back to the Brite space, where everyone shared stories from their part of the neighborhood and gorged on the buffet of delicious treats. What a way to kick off the Brite space?

For more, check out the Brite blog and flickr

IMG_6013

See the rest of the photos of the event HERE!



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Brite Space In Progress

Brite crew: Dylan, Jean, Christa, Nin

Here's what we've done to the Brite space so far....Just so you know...it's a work in progress...and also our budget is limited (i.e. no budget)
But between finding materials from Dylan's work, collecting crates from the ID, and bringing random things we have around our house, we're pretty happy with what we've been able to do so far for the space!
A coffee table made with stacked pallets.
the wall of crates are all scavenged from the ID since there's such an abundance of Asian produce shops! Nin impressively put that up in mere couple of hours!

We even got a coffee & tea station! Thanks to Caffé Vita for always supporting our endeavor!
Nothing like some take out Chinese food after working some late hours at Brite...That's one thing that we don't have to worry about...that there's always food available in the International District!
Curious people passer bysBrite's theme for this month, to explore the concept of "space Available" and what it means to use space in a creative way.



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Crafting a meaningful home book par-tay!!

I'm totally stoked about the opening book launch party this Thursday, Oct, 21st at Rare Device! And I was more than surprised to see the Mega Doily on their flyer!! Woo Hoo!!
I'll be there to show the projects that Chika & I did...the Mega-Doily rug from Ladies & Gentlemen and also a Coat of Arms project from R&L.

Bunch of other talanted contributers will be there in person and showing some of their projects! I'm super excited that I'll actually be there to meet everyone and also help Meg and Kate Pruitt (DIY editor at Design*Sponge) do some of the installation for this event! All I know is that we're doing something with cardboard....which I can only imagine between the Meg & Kate, the place is gonna look totally amazing!

Come check out the projects and see the book in person, and of course..come say hello!

Rare Device
1845 Market Street ( at Guererro)
San Francisco, CA, 94103
October 21st, 7-9 pm

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A BRITE Opportunity

So we all know that summer is officially over, and that this year has definitely gone by WAY too fast. But we're happy to share a great exciting news for BRITE Collective where we have been given a store front spaces for the next 3 months as a temporary residency in the Seattle International District!

What does this mean?
This means that we get to use this space to host creative events and activities as a platform that can foster individuals to create, connect and leave inspired. Also this will give us an opportunity to connect with local groups/designers/artists/businesses and collaborate to do something fun and out of the ordinary!

Here's a preview of our space and the rough set up. ...
How did this happen?
well...really...it's because of our current unfortunate state of the economy.... But all this is a total blessing in disguise! I see it as a new Renaissance way of living where people, whether they like it or not, have to keep an open mind for things that more temporary, flexible, and unpredictable....and I think all of us are learning to adjust to this new way and trying to embrace the concept of "living in the moment" by taking advantage of the resources & opportunities that are all around us. Just within the past year I've seen so many interesting new food cart/truck business popping up, met new people doing super interesting projects, or new groups coming together to gain forces to do something great...I think we all are looking to make the best out of the worst.

And his is exactly what the Seattle Store Front project is all about. The idea formed when all these vacant/for lease spaces are popping up and dramatically changing the dynamic & the feel of the area. It's never appealing to see or walk through places where you see that every turn you take. So various local Seattle organizations formed this project to encourage creative individuals/groups of all realm to utilize existing vacant store fronts as an opportunity to experiment and bring something positive to the neighborhood as well as help building a stronger sense of community and arts in the area. So despite the unfortunate existence of these vacant spaces around town, this is totally a perfect creative way to put a positive spin on it all.

Brite is really looking forward to take full advantage of such opportunity and is planning on teaming up with local groups, artists, designers, musicians, you name it!
We got a ton of ideas to host variety of workshops, installations, music and film related events, holiday parties and more!!
For the first small event, we invited couple of guys who organizes the annual PARK(ing) Day for Seattle, where they get people to set up parks in what would normally be parking spots or vacant gravel lots for one day simply for the goal to get people to see & use existing spaces differently.
We participated in last year's PARK(ing) day, and this year the timing worked out that we got the space around they same time that PARK(ing) day was happening. So we decided to set up temporary park-like elements in our vacant space as a way to get some fun activities happeing there to start!
Our set up of an indoor picnic with some ARCADE magazines....
Four Square = four times the fun! So much space (1300 sq/ft much of it!), so many ideas, and so little time!....It's going to be an action packed winter because we got LOADS of ideas/plans which will be taking place really soon!
Stay tuned! 

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"Crafting A Meaniful Home" Out Now!

FINALLY the book that we've all been waiting for!! (Or at least I have!)
I seem like only yesterday when we first met Meg and got the opportunity to be in her book!
We got our copy of Meg's "Crafting A Meaningful Home" book recently and was totally blown away by the quality of it all. The beautiful cover, all the lovely colorful photos, and 27 seven amazing project by all amazing designers/artists/crafters!

Here's a little sneak peak!!
Meg and her husband.
I'm on the first page! Crazy!L&G's Mega-Doily!
R&L's wood burned coat of arms for the Dupe!
I just love this photo...
Here are all the project & the people in the book
About the book
As the second decade of the 21st century begins, we’re more compelled than ever to find refuge in our homes and personalize our living spaces with DIY projects that celebrate who we are and where we’ve been. In Crafting a Meaningful Home, Meg Mateo Ilasco shares 27 projects that tell personal stories and celebrate heritage, all easily created on a budget. Learn how to decoupage a plate with photos of a best friend; silkscreen upholstery with folk motifs; artfully display love notes; sew a teepee from a vintage quilt top; or create family silhouettes for a festive banner. Contributed by a hip cast of well known designers from across the country, the projects are, at once, nostalgic, sentimental, and modern. Clear instruc­tions are easy to follow, even for beginning crafters.

You can get your copy here!


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AUG 2010 NYIGF Wrap Up

Alright, this is totally late...and we apologize, but here's a quick little photo montage of JOIN's premiere New York Gift Fair two weeks ago. We had a great time, the booth looked cowabunga, and there was great interest in JOIN and L&G's goods, so high five for all!

We're toting up to head on back to Seattle at last... Bye bye NY...for now. Before we jet-set, here's the brief run down of the show:

The good-looking JOIN crew in front of the booth, followed by some action shots throughout the fair:

 
The collage below is from the breakdown of the show, which was an amazing sight. Thousands of elaborate booths being broken down in 4-6 hours... complete pandemonium yet an amazing orchestration at the same time...just like the Big Apple itself! We'll miss it for sure as we settle back into sleepy little Ballard tonight.

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L&G on Desire to Inspire

 

We're TOTALLY stoked that L&G got a couple of mentions on Desire to Inspire's recent "Wink" (Weekend Links) Posts!
Its quite exciting to find that blogs we find inspiring are actually finding our designs to be inspring in return! That's totally exciting enough to make us raise our fists and go "hurray!"

Our first mention on their Winks (weekend links) post!


Our second Winks mention in the same month! Ok...now we're jumping up and down and running around in circles like maniacs. :)

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L&G Printe Materials for NYIGF

Finally got to whip out my original Gocco printer since when I first got it at the age of 8! It was one of things where I lugged all the way from Taiwan and to all the places I ever lived but can only remember using it a handful of times....if that many.

But I wanted to make original L&G cards made out of vintage fliers, and what better way to do this than with the Gocco printer!!I want my future family to look like this....
And here's our product line sheet packet to hand out at the gift fair.
I even bribed some friends with food & wine to help with the assembling them....thanks Lauren, Nathan, Christine & Nick!! I'm lucky to have friends who are always game for all the "work" parties that I host! :D


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The Launch!

Those who have visited our site in the last day (you know you look like everyday...) may have noticed a much needed update has been executed to celebrate the release of our new products in time for the NYIGF this Aug 15-19th: Chalk it to me Piggy (v2.0) and Superior Servers.

We're very excited about these two labors of love.

 

You may have followed Jean's multi-part mini-series on the birth of our Chalk it to me Piggy...well he's finally almost all grown up and ready to take on the world. This proud parent has to say he's looking pretty handsome eh?


Superior servers is another vintage inspired line of brightly color coated serving ware. These dandy serving pieces will class up your dinner service than most parties at your grandma's. Each piece is available in 3 lovely colors that can be mixed and matched to your fancy.
You can go to our website to see it all!



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